ve come from high enough. There is no ice up
there. You have to pass another valley first. The high mountain is
beyond it, and the stones would fall into the next valley."

"It must have been loosened, then, by the rain."

"Perhaps, herr; but it is more likely that a goat--No, there are no
goats pastured so far up as this, and no man could be travelling up
there. Herr, would you like to shoot a chamois?"

"Indeed I should; but we have no gun."

"No, herr, I forgot: we have no gun. But that must have been a chamois.
We are getting into the wild region where they live, though this is low
down for them."

"But surely," said Dale, "they would get no pasture higher up?"

"Only in patches, herr. They have been so persecuted by the hunters
that they live constantly amongst the ice and snow and in the most
solitary spots. But I cannot understand about that stone falling."

"Well, it doesn't matter," said Saxe. "It did not hit either of us, and
you said they often fell in the mountains."

"Yes herr, but not like that."

They went on for the next two hours in silence, while the pass they were
following grew more and more wild, but it opened out a little during the
next hour, but only to contract again. And here, in a secluded place
beneath one of the vast walls of rock which shut them in, and beside a
tiny rivulet which came bubbling and foaming down, the guide suggested a
short halt and refreshment.

Dale agreed, and Saxe doubly agreed, helping to lift the pannier from
the mule's back, when the patient animal indulged in a roll, drank a
little water, and then began to browse on such tender shoots and herbage
as it could find.

The bread and cheese were produced, and all were seated enjoying their
alfresco meal, when once more from up to their right a stone as big as a
man's head came crashing down, to fall not far away. So near was it
that it startled the mule, who trotted a little on out of danger before
beginning again to graze.

Melchior had sprung to his feet at once, leaped away for a short
distance, and stood shading his eyes again, and scanning the rocky face
of the precipice on their right--that is, just above their heads.

"Well, what do you make of it?" cried Dale,--"a landslip?"

"No, herr; there is no landslip."

"Is it the advance-guard of an avalanche?"

"Without snow, herr? No."

"Come and eat your bread and cheese, Melk," cried Saxe; "it is only a
loose stone tumbled down, and no o